City lawyers on Friday observed token strike of one hour and staged hunger strike to protest against the presidential reference filed against Chief Justice Supreme Court Mr Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.
The lawyers stayed in their bar rooms and held corner meetings to review their struggle in respect of restoration of independence of judiciary, reference against the chief justice and its consequences and the government's effort to stifle print and electronic media covering lawyers movement across the country. They have reaffirmed their stand on all issues and resolved to continue protest as long as issues are not settled.
Two groups of lawyers, including female lawyers, observed hunger strike for one hour to register their protest. The office of the Karachi Bar Association and the Sindh Bar Council had separate groups of hunger strikers.
The lawyers took out a rally and demonstrated against the government and its attitude toward independence of judiciary. They condemned the reluctance of the government to liberate judiciary and restore rightful place to the chief justice.
The lawyers said that once the judiciary submitted to the dictators it would be end of all struggles and never in the future there would be a free, independent and honest judiciary. They said that political parties supporting them were doing so in the interest of judiciary whereas the lawyers' fraternity had no political ambitions.
Because of the protest court proceedings remained suspended and the judges in the upper and lower courts preferred to remain in the chambers. The SBC said that in the interior of Sindh the lawyers held meetings and observed hunger strike. During protest work in courts remained suspended.
In the meantime President SBC Abrar Hasan Khan and others left for Islamabad from where they would travel to Lahore along with Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry where a lawyers' convention would be held. Justice Chaudhry will address the lawyers' convention at the Punjab High Court Bar Council.
Chairman Human Right Committee of the SBC Aaqil Lodhi has said that various committees would be set up to give final shape to the programme of lawyers' convention to be held on May 12, which would be addressed by Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.